Got some pendants from the cactus paper going. Incorporating a bit of fuschia cotton thread into the final piece-- just a thin thread--it runs alongside a fiber in the paper, wherever suggests itself. Fuschia to suggest prickly pear fruit. I like the color against the natural browns of the paper.

It's that bit that seems right, that takes it from boring to an interesting manipulated object. I don't know why.

Not putting any gold or silver leaf on these.

I've been trying to think of more complex desgins to do with the handmade papers, but complex feels wrong to me for them. LIie the plant, like the process, I want them to be deceptively humble.

Have not been sleeping well lately. I always wake at 3:30am for an hour or so, then wake for the day at 5:30. Waking at 5:30 is ok, but I could do without the 3:30 awakening.

A little girl here, 6, was taken from her home a week or so ago. Worst nightmare thing-- parents put her to bed, went to wake her in the morning and she was gone. So now, even though there's no way anyone could get into Q's room without me hearing it on the monitor, when I wake I listen for her. If she makes a noise, I worry someone's in there trying to cart her off. If she doesn't make any noise, I worry she's gone. I had a bit of this sort of fear after that break-in-- I had gotten over it. And now here it is again. Lovely. I sure hope they find that girl safe and sound. Seems unlikely, but you never know. I shouldn't say this, but I sort of hope the parents had something to do with it. It would be a small comfort to know that that sort of disappearance doesn't really happen quite so often in real life. It does, of course. Not often, but too often. But for the sake of my sleep, I'd like to preserve my illusion. At this rate, I'll be using a baby monitor in her room until she's, like, 25.